Stop Waiting. Start Leading.
A 16-week email course on AI leadership for school administrators, grounded in research, built for your actual work.
You don’t need to be an AI expert to lead in AI. Teachers say they are using it to reclaim six weeks per year. Your job is to decide what gets protected, what gets tried, and what only humans bring to education. This course teaches you how, one practical week at a time.
Rolling enrollment. Free. No login required. One email per week for 16 weeks.
The Adoption Paradox
Your teachers are using AI. Your students are using AI. The research shows it saves six weeks of planning time per year. But 60% of educators report that AI is eroding trust in the classroom. You face an impossible choice: police the technology or embrace it blindly.
Meanwhile, the advice you’re getting treats you like you need to become a technologist. You don’t. What you actually need is clearer judgment [purposeful emdash]—about your own leadership, your school’s and community’s values, and what role AI plays in keeping the human at the center of education.
This is what leadership looks like in 2026: not understanding AI deeply, but deciding wisely about it.
In 16 Weeks, You Will…
Use AI in Your Own Work
Draft better communications. Prepare for difficult conversations. Analyze data faster. Summarize complex documents. Do this by Week 4. No tech background required.
Make Values-Grounded Decisions
About AI in your school. About policies. About what the staff learns. About what protects students. Decisions informed by research, grounded in your leadership, not deferred.
Lead Honest Conversations
With staff, board, parents, and community. You’ll know what to say, what questions to ask, and how to listen to the real concerns people bring. You’ll move from defensive to thoughtful.
Each week, you’ll get one short email. Half are learning pieces (5 min read). Half are “do this week” applications (30-45 min). You’ll build a portfolio of real decisions and real experiments. By the end, you’ll have clarity that’s authentically yours—not borrowed from someone else’s framework.
The Data Behind This Course
86%
…of teachers are using AI tools. Your school already is—the question is whether you’re shaping it or it’s shaping you.
6 weeks per year
is the average time teachers reclaim when using AI intentionally. Imagine reallocating that to mentorship and instruction.
60%
of educators report AI is eroding teacher-student trust. This course teaches you how to rebuild it, not ignore it.
49%
of districts have clear AI policies. You don’t need to be perfect—you need to be intentional.
This course isn’t about keeping up with the news cycle. It’s grounded in FLL research on how AI actually works in schools, what helps learning, what poses risks, and how leaders in Montana, Washington, Ohio, Alaska, Alabama, and across the country are making this work. The insights come from the field. The framework comes from your values.
Built for Leaders Like You
Superintendent / District Leader
You’re responsible for district-wide policy and culture. This course teaches you how to move from reaction to governance and how to make decisions that protect both innovation and equity.
Principal and Building Leader
You’re managing the classroom implications daily. You’ll learn how to have clear conversations with teachers, set boundaries around AI use, and shape your building’s culture around it.
District Tech Officer / Innovation Lead
You’re implementing policy and vetting tools. This course grounds your technical decisions in leadership language—so you can explain the “why” to staff and community, not just the “how.”
Whether you’re navigating this alone or leading a team, this course meets you where you are. It doesn’t assume you have a technical background. It assumes you care about getting it right.
What You’ll Learn
- Modules 1-2: Build an honest mental model of AI. Use it in your own work.
- Modules 3-4: Understand its limits. Learn how to ask better questions.
- Modules 5-6: Make decisions. Facilitate staff conversations.
- Modules 7-8: Shape your school’s AI culture. Reflect on your growth.
Each module builds on the last. While you will learn about AI, the goal is to build habits: habits of curiosity, skepticism, and careful judgment. Habits that survive the next software update. Habits that keep you leading, not following.
From MTDA’s Frontier Learning Lab and School Administrators of Montana
This course is offered by the Frontier Learning Lab at Montana Digital Academy and developed in partnership with the School Administrators of Montana (SAM). MTDA and FLL have been researching AI in education for four years, including piloting tools, interviewing leaders, training thousands of teachers, and building frameworks that work in real schools. SAM brings the voice of practicing administrators across the state. Together, we’re building something grounded in research and tested in the field.
The authors of the course include…
Dr. Jason Neiffer leads Montana Digital Academy and works with FLL’s AI research and support experts. He has spoken at national conferences on responsible AI adoption. This course distills his work with thousands of educators into practical clarity for leaders.
Caitlin Byers is the Director of the Frontier Learning Lab. Caitlin is an educator and leader with diverse experience in online, place-based, experiential, and competency education. Her focus is on helping teachers and students build the critical skills and strong foundation needed to succeed in all classrooms by thoughtfully navigating the world around them.
No Need to Wait!
Enrollment is open now. Rolling admission means you can start whenever you’re ready: next week, next month, whenever it fits your calendar. No deadline. No pressure. Just clear thinking on one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a leader.
Free. No login required. One email per week. Unsubscribe anytime.